Celestial AI Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors

Celestial AI was acquired by Marvell Technology for $3.3B in December 2025.

Celestial AI acquisition price

$3.3B

Acquired by Marvell Technology · Dec 2025

Cumulative funding Celestial AI raised

$594M

across 6 funding rounds

Key investors in Celestial AI

  • Koch Disruptive Technologies
  • Tyche Partners
  • Temasek
  • M Ventures
  • The Engine
  • Samsung Catalyst Fund
  • Porsche SE
  • IAG Capital Partners

Celestial AI Overview

About Celestial AI

Celestial AI is a semiconductor company building optical interconnects for AI data centers. Its Photonic Fabric interconnects memory pools with compute engines using silicon photonics to achieve over 10 TB/s bandwidth per socket. The technology disaggregates memory from GPUs for hyperscale training workloads. Partnerships include AMD and Samsung for HBM integration. Founded in 2020, Celestial AI locates headquarters in Santa Clara, California, and ships prototypes to cloud providers.


Founded

2020

HQ

United StatesSan Jose, CA

Status

Acquired

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Product sales

Valuation

$2.5B (Mar 2025)

Celestial AI Acquisition

Celestial AI was acquired by Marvell Technology for $3.3B on 2 December 2025.

Before the acquisition Celestial AI had raised $594M across 6 funding rounds.

Celestial AI develops Photonic Fabric, a technology platform for optical interconnects that enables high-bandwidth, power-efficient connectivity solutions, including scale-up networks for XPUs, pooled memory appliances, and optical replacements for electrical die-to-die connections in multi-die packages. Marvell Technology, a semiconductor provider specializing in data infrastructure platforms, announced a definitive agreement on December 2, 2025, to acquire Celestial AI for $3.25 billion in upfront consideration, comprising $1 billion in cash and 27.2 million shares of Marvell common stock valued at $2.25 billion based on the 10-day VWAP prior to signing. A potential earnout provides additional payment if Celestial AI achieves cumulative revenue exceeding $2 billion by the end of Marvell’s fiscal 2029. The acquisition strengthens Marvell’s leadership in interconnect technologies for next-generation AI and cloud data centers, expanding optical connectivity capabilities amid the shift from copper to optical links within racks, systems, and packages to meet escalating bandwidth demands. Marvell completed the transaction on February 2, 2026, integrating Celestial AI’s technologies and team into its Data Center Group. Financially, it adds $50 million in annual non-GAAP operating expenses, reduces cash by $1 billion impacting interest income by $38 million annually, and increases diluted shares by 27 million; revenue contributions start in the second half of fiscal 2028 at a $500 million annualized run rate, doubling to $1 billion by Q4 fiscal 2029.

Celestial AI acquisition details
AcquirerDateTypePrice
2 Dec 2025Strategic M&A$3.3B

Celestial AI Valuation

Celestial AI is currently valued at $2.5B, based on its Series C in March 2025.

The $255M round was led by Fidelity, with participation from Temasek, Porsche SE, Lip-Bu Tan, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Engine Ventures and 6 other investors.

Celestial AI's valuation has grown 17x from $150M at its Series A in February 2022 to $2.5B in March 2025, across 3 priced rounds.

Celestial AI valuation by funding round

Celestial AI valuation by funding round
DateStageValuation
Mar 2025Series C$2.5B
Mar 2024Series C$1.2B
Feb 2022Series A$150M

Celestial AI Funding History

Celestial AI has raised a total of $594M across 6 funding rounds.

Celestial AI's first fundraising round was a $5M angel round in August 2020. The most recent completed round was a $255M Series C in March 2025.

Celestial AI funding rounds

Celestial AI funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedValuationDeal Summary
Mar 2025Series CFidelity (lead); Temasek; Porsche SE; Lip-Bu Tan; Samsung Catalyst Fund; Engine Ventures; Koch Disruptive Technologies; AMD Ventures; BlackRock; Maverick Silicon; Tiger Global; VentureTech Alliance$255M$2.5BCelestial AI, a Santa Clara, California-based startup founded in 2020, develops the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology platform to disaggregate compute and memory, enabling faster AI processing, higher bandwidth, lower latency, and greater energy efficiency for AI infrastructure, data centers, and exascale clusters. The platform leverages integrated silicon photonics and is compatible with industry-standard manufacturing and 2.5D packaging, addressing challenges in generative AI like complex reasoning models and agentic AI requiring massive data transfers across processors. On March 11, 2025, Celestial AI announced a $250 million Series C1 funding round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, achieving a reported $2.5 billion post-money valuation and bringing total capital raised to over $515 million. New investors included funds managed by BlackRock, Maverick Silicon (also referred to as Maverick Capital), Tiger Global Management, and Lip-Bu Tan (who joined the board), alongside existing backers such as AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Temasek Holdings (including Xora Innovation), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, and The Engine Ventures. This followed a $175 million Series C in 2024 led by US Innovative Technology Fund. The funding accelerates commercialization of Photonic Fabric, expands volume manufacturing supply chain, and supports deep engagements with hyperscalers, AI processor vendors, custom silicon makers, and packaging partners to meet surging AI infrastructure demands. CEO David Lazovsky highlighted the need for scaling cluster sizes while maintaining high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity. The company competes with rivals like Lightmatter ($4.4B valuation after $400M raise) and Ayar Labs (unicorn after $155M), in the photonic computing space aimed at reducing AI power consumption. Celestial AI previously acquired Rockley Photonics’ silicon photonics portfolio and has raised prior rounds including $50M Series A in 2021 and others totaling prior to this round around $265M. Investors praised the technology's potential for terabytes of low-latency bandwidth, in-network computing, and high-capacity memory disaggregation.
Mar 2024Series CUS Innovative Technology Fund (lead); Temasek; Porsche SE; M Ventures; Tyche Partners; Penguin Solutions; IAG Capital Partners; Samsung Catalyst Fund; Engine Ventures; Koch Disruptive Technologies; AMD Ventures; Xora Innovation$175M$1.2BCelestial AI, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, develops the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology platform to address bandwidth, latency, memory capacity, and power efficiency challenges in AI data centers and accelerated computing. The platform disaggregates memory from compute, enabling hyperscalers to scale AI models sustainably amid explosive generative AI demand. With over 180 employees, the company focuses on commercializing this technology for next-generation data centers constrained by utility power and high operational costs. On March 27, 2024, Celestial AI closed a $175 million Series C funding round led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), founded by Thomas Tull. Participants included AMD Ventures, Engine Ventures, IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), M Ventures, Penguin Solutions (Smart Global Holdings), Porsche Automobil Holding (Porsche SE), Samsung Catalyst Fund, Temasek Holdings, Tyche Partners, and Temasek's Xora Innovation. The round, described as highly oversubscribed, valued the company at $1.2 billion post-money according to SalesTools, bringing total funding to nearly $339 million at that point. Proceeds will accelerate product development, team expansion, global operations scaling, and multiple large-scale customer collaborations with hyperscalers to commercialize Photonic Fabric, which has seen silicon validation and strong demand. CEO Dave Lazovsky highlighted its potential as the de facto standard for optical interconnectivity in advanced AI models requiring exponential I/O improvements. Investors like Chase Koch of KDT emphasized its role in reducing power consumption for AI workloads. This Series C followed a $100 million Series B in June 2023 led by IAG, KDT, and Xora Innovation. A subsequent $250 million Series C1 round in March 2025 led by Fidelity at $2.5 billion valuation included BlackRock, Tiger Global, and others, pushing total funding over $515 million, but details pertain to the specified 2024 round.
Jun 2023Series BIAG Capital Partners (lead); Koch Disruptive Technologies (lead); Xora Innovation (lead); Porsche SE; M Ventures; Tyche Partners; Penguin Solutions; The Engine; Samsung Catalyst Fund; imec.xpand$100M-Celestial AI, a Santa Clara, California-based startup founded in 2020, develops Photonic Fabric technology, a platform of optical interconnects that disaggregates compute and memory resources for high-performance computing in AI workloads, including generative AI and recommendation engines. The technology promises 25x greater bandwidth, over 10x lower latency, and reduced power consumption compared to alternatives like co-packaged optics, and is compatible with standards such as CXL, PCIe, UCIe, and JEDEC HBM. Celestial AI offers its solution through a licensing program and has engagements with tier-one customers, including hyperscalers, processor, and memory companies. On June 28, 2023, Celestial AI raised $100 million in its Series B funding round, led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), and Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund, bringing total funding to over $165 million. Other investors included Samsung Catalyst Fund (noted as Samsung Catalyst), Penguin Solutions (via Smart Global Holdings/SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, The Engine (Fund), imec.xpand, M Ventures, and Tyche Partners. The funds will expand engineering, sales, technical marketing, and support production of its photonics platform, with employee count expected to grow from around 100 to 130 by year-end. Celestial AI also sells its own AI accelerator chip, Orion, built on the Photonic Fabric architecture, though photonics chips face engineering challenges in data-to-analog conversion and signal regeneration. The company is building an ecosystem with AI compute and memory suppliers, hyperscalers, and supply chain partners to address bottlenecks in memory capacity, bandwidth, and chip-to-chip interconnectivity for accelerated computing systems. Subsequent developments include a $175 million Series C in 2024 led by US Innovative Technology Fund, with total funding nearing $339 million, amid growing investor interest in AI semiconductors.
Feb 2022Series AKoch Disruptive Technologies (lead); Temasek (lead); M Ventures; Tyche Partners; The Engine; Fitz Gate Ventures; imec.xpand$56M$150MCelestial AI is an AI-accelerator company developing a proprietary hardware and software platform for machine learning chipsets, centered on its Photonic Fabric technology that uses light for high-speed, low-power data movement within and between chips to address computing bottlenecks in AI workloads. The $56 million Series A round, announced on February 4, 2022, was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies with participation from Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund, The Engine, Tyche Partners, M Ventures, IMEC XPand, and Fitz Gate Ventures. Funds were allocated to expand the global engineering team, advance product development for Orion AI accelerator products, and engage strategic suppliers like Broadcom. This round marked Celestial AI's entry into significant venture backing, highlighting its hybrid photonic-electronic approach that leverages electronics for computing and photonics for data movement, promising advantages in performance, power efficiency, latency, software simplicity, and total cost of ownership. CEO David Lazovsky emphasized solving efficient data movement challenges amid rising AI model complexity. Investors were drawn to the software advantages enabling customer ease and faster market entry. Subsequent rounds included a $100 million Series B in April 2023 at $368.65 million post-money, $175 million Series C in March 2024 at $1.22 billion, and $250-255 million Series C1 in March 2025 at $2.5 billion, bringing total funding over $500 million with investors like AMD Ventures, Samsung Catalyst, and Fidelity.
Jan 2021SeedTyche Partners; The Engine$3M-Celestial AI develops the Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology to address bandwidth, latency, memory capacity, and energy efficiency challenges in AI infrastructure. The company, founded in 2020 and based in Santa Clara, California, focuses on separating compute and memory to enable faster, more efficient AI processing. Fitz Gate Ventures led the seed extension round in 2021, with participation from The Engine (MIT Engine Fund), Tyche Partners, IMEC, and M Ventures. No financial details such as valuation, amount raised, revenue, or EBITDA are specified for this 2021 round. Celestial AI later progressed through larger rounds, including a $56M round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, $100M Series B co-led by Temasek’s Xora and IAG Capital Partners, $175M Series C at $1.2B valuation led by US Innovative Technology Fund, and $250M Series D at $2.5B valuation led by Fidelity Management and Research. The company was acquired by Marvell Technologies in January 2026 for $5.5 billion.
Aug 2020Angel-$5M-Celestial AI raised $5 million in an Angel funding round in August 2020. The Santa Clara-based semiconductor startup, founded in 2020, develops Photonic Fabric, an optical interconnect technology platform that uses light-based communication to transfer data between chips. The post-money valuation and financial metrics for this early-stage round are not publicly available.

Who has invested in Celestial AI?

21 investors have backed Celestial AI across its funding rounds, including Koch Disruptive Technologies, Tyche Partners, Temasek, M Ventures, The Engine and Samsung Catalyst Fund.

Lead investors include Fidelity, US Innovative Technology Fund, IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Xora Innovation and 1 other investor.


Celestial AI Investors

Investors in Celestial AI by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
Tyche PartnersUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA4ParticipantJan 2021
Koch Disruptive TechnologiesUnited StatesWichita, KS4LeadFeb 2022
TemasekSingaporeSingapore3LeadFeb 2022
Porsche SEGermanyStuttgart3ParticipantJun 2023
M VenturesNetherlandsAmsterdam3ParticipantFeb 2022
The EngineUnited StatesUnited States3ParticipantJan 2021
Samsung Catalyst FundUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA3ParticipantJun 2023
Penguin SolutionsUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA2ParticipantJun 2023
IAG Capital PartnersUnited StatesCharleston, SC2LeadJun 2023
Engine VenturesUnited StatesUnited States2ParticipantMar 2024
AMD VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA2ParticipantMar 2024
Xora InnovationSingaporeSingapore2LeadJun 2023
imec.xpandBelgiumLeuven2ParticipantFeb 2022

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Celestial AI Competitors

Celestial AI competitors include listed companies like Core Scientific, D-Wave Quantum and Northern Data, and private ones like Xsight Labs, NextSilicon and Inspur Cloud.

Public and private companies comparable to Celestial AI
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
Xsight LabsIsraelKiryat GatPrivate--$2.8B-
Core ScientificUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$319M($211M)$5.5B13.9x
D-Wave QuantumUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$25M($373M)$6.7B166.4x
NextSiliconIsraelTel AvivPrivate--$1.5B-
Inspur CloudChinaJinanPrivate--$1B-
Northern DataGermanyGermanyPublicly listed$92M($36M)$624M-

Celestial AI Public Comps

Celestial AI is no longer listed, but its public comps include Bitdeer, Sinnet Technology, DigitalBridge Group, Csquare, ChronoScale, Ionic Digital, Time Dotcom, Xanadu, Keel Infrastructure and Fujian Star-Net.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
Bitdeer$620M$331M7.3x5.3x13.7x35.7x
Sinnet Technology$1.1B$72M3.5x3.6x51.4x18.4x
DigitalBridge Group$71M$30M54.5x41.4x129.6x-
Csquare$987M$375M8.7x-23.0x-
ChronoScale$72M$21M42.5x-147.6x-
Ionic Digital$141M($248M)25.4x-(14.5x)-
Time Dotcom$438M$183M6.1x5.8x14.6x13.3x
Xanadu$3M($47M)629.3x281.8x(44.6x)(24.7x)

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Common questions about Celestial AI

When was Celestial AI founded?Celestial AI was founded in 2020.
Where is Celestial AI headquartered?Celestial AI is headquartered in San Jose, CA, United States.
Is Celestial AI publicly listed?No, Celestial AI was acquired by Marvell Technology in December 2025.
Who acquired Celestial AI?Celestial AI was acquired by Marvell Technology in December 2025.
How much was Celestial AI acquired for?Celestial AI was acquired for $3.3B in December 2025.
What is Celestial AI's valuation?Celestial AI was last valued at $2.5B in its Series C in March 2025.
How much funding has Celestial AI raised?Celestial AI has raised $594M across 6 funding rounds.
What was Celestial AI's last funding round?Celestial AI's last funding round was a $255M Series C in March 2025, led by Fidelity.
Who are Celestial AI's investors?Celestial AI's investors include Tyche Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Temasek, Porsche SE, M Ventures, The Engine, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Penguin Solutions, IAG Capital Partners, Engine Ventures and 11 others.
Which companies are comparable to Celestial AI?Companies comparable to Celestial AI include Xsight Labs, Core Scientific, D-Wave Quantum, NextSilicon, Inspur Cloud and Northern Data.

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